NYC Law wrote:I used a mini z table and 6.8 wasn't included. 6.8 has been added, so try it now.

Oh, I think I see how you're doing it. Did you use normsinv? The formula's straightforward:

=(data point gpa - mean gpa)/normsinv(1-(data point rank/100)

I just ended up using NORMDIST to get the final rank, I figured thats what you were talking about since I was missing that last step. But I see what you mean, it's pretty rudimentary atm. The thing about those google docs is they ensure chaos since everything everyone does is updated real time for everyone else, but its the only thing I've found for making public spreadseets. I'll use that norminv formula though, give me a sec

NYC Law wrote:I used a mini z table and 6.8 wasn't included. 6.8 has been added, so try it now.

Oh, I think I see how you're doing it. Did you use normsinv? The formula's straightforward:

=(data point gpa - mean gpa)/normsinv(1-(data point rank/100)

I just ended up using NORMDIST to get the final rank, I figured thats what you were talking about since I was missing that last step. But I see what you mean, it's pretty rudimentary atm. The thing about those google docs is they ensure chaos since everything everyone does is updated real time for everyone else, but its the only thing I've found for making public spreadseets. I'll use that norminv formula though, give me a sec

Oh, my bad. I think I wasn't paying attention when I wrote that bit out. It's been a while since I thought about this stuff and I get sloppy occasionally. I made the spreadsheet a while back, though, so all the math on that part is still good.

NYC Law wrote:I used a mini z table and 6.8 wasn't included. 6.8 has been added, so try it now.

Oh, I think I see how you're doing it. Did you use normsinv? The formula's straightforward:

=(data point gpa - mean gpa)/normsinv(1-(data point rank/100)

I just ended up using NORMDIST to get the final rank, I figured thats what you were talking about since I was missing that last step. But I see what you mean, it's pretty rudimentary atm. The thing about those google docs is they ensure chaos since everything everyone does is updated real time for everyone else, but its the only thing I've found for making public spreadseets. I'll use that norminv formula though, give me a sec

Oh, my bad. I think I wasn't paying attention when I wrote that bit out. It's been a while since I thought about this stuff and I get sloppy occasionally. I made the spreadsheet a while back, though, so all the math on that part is still good.

NYC Law wrote:I started making an excel spreadsheet for kicks, but I hit a speed bump at the final step. Is there a way to calculate the p from the z score with a formula in excel? My stats memory is a little fuzzy...

Hadlendale wrote:Anyone know a good method for obtaining an example data point? Or is this just something that is available via google for certain schools?

Word of mouth for what determines honors, I would imagine. My school has a law review grade-on for the top 25 students in our class of ~370, and typically number 25 falls somewhere in the area of 3.7 (this is the common lore of the school, anyway), so we use 3.7 and 25/370 = top 6.8% as our data point.

alredy posted this in 1L Grade waiting thread, but wanted to get some thoughts in this thread, so sry for the double posting...

where are you guys getting the mean/median 1L GPA for your school? i found some info from NALP re: top X% and associated GPAs. however, that is for graduates and not 1L. thus, is this a good indicator of class rank or not really?

futurelawyer413 wrote:alredy posted this in 1L Grade waiting thread, but wanted to get some thoughts in this thread, so sry for the double posting...

where are you guys getting the mean/median 1L GPA for your school? i found some info from NALP re: top X% and associated GPAs. however, that is for graduates and not 1L. thus, is this a good indicator of class rank or not really?

The mean is what the courses curve to, and should be common knowledge at most schools. It'll do as a fill-in for the median, which is harder to get. Median at graduation and median as a 1L may or may not be the same, dependent upon whether or not the 1L classes are held to the same curve. At some schools I'm told that it drifts upwards.

I'm not so good with math, but this seems to not work in determining class rank at my school. For example, my school gives A+ and all first year classes are curved between 3.0 and 3.3. Yet, using historical numbers, when I put an example gpa of 4.0, it gives a class rank of approximately top 6 percent. This simply cannot be. Heck, when I put the highest gpa in the class, it gives a percentile of top 3 percent. Can anyone explain how this math works?

Here's a question: can you list the expected GPAs for the top 20 ranked students. Obviously this will be subject to a good amount of variance, but I'm curious as to how the top 5% is likely to shake out.